Help Point me in the Right Direction please.
Hello all,
I was hoping someone (or multiple someone’s) could get me pointed in the right direction or tell me that I am SHOL.
I would like to know if it is possible to have “dynamic” data in word (2003) documents. Let me explain, I will start with what we do now and how I would like to fix or change it.
We have approx 35 , we will call them “divisions” for the time being, and each division has a folder on the shared drive. We have approx 700 ,lets call them “customers” for the time, and each “customer” has a folder located in the associated “division” folder on the shared Drive. (\\Drive\Division#1\Customer#1...\\Drive\Division#32\Customer#348\ etc etc etc .)
There is a “MSword2003” document that exists in every “Customer Folder” that contains data about that “customer” (including but not limited too….Contacts, Notes, Customer #’s etc) We will call this the “DeCust.doc” file for the time. A lot of the information in these “DeCust.doc” files can exist in another “customers” “DeCust.doc” files such as a contact name and address. One of the problems we run into is that a contact (lets say Smiths Plumbing Service) may send an email to notify of an address change and the person receiving the email will change the contact’s address in the “DeCust.doc” files of the “customers” that that employee (employee #1) works with but, there are other “DeCust.doc” files in other “customer” folders that the address never gets changed in. When a different employee (employee #2) opens a “deCust.doc” file of a different customer that he/she works with the contact (Smiths Plumbing Service) the address of this “deCust.doc:” file is wrong (not updated).
I would like to solve this problem. I have already developed a Demo VB/Database application to be used in lieu of the “DeCust.doc” files but, I have met Way too much resistance in getting people to switch from using individual docs in each “customer” folder to using a database program. With that being said, I started wondering if there was a way to Link/populate/fill the “contact” information in these “DeCust.Doc” files to a central Database or such that when someone changes an address for a contact it is simultaneously changed in all the other “DeCust.doc” files. Any and ALL ideas would be much appreciated.
Gmack!
Re: Help Point me in the Right Direction please.
My god! Punch those people in the face! They have no idea what they are saying. I would very strongly explain to them that it is beyond words to describe their current system and the inflexibility. This NEEDS a database.
This is where a test of your negotiation skills is going to come in, you need to convince them that they want a new system and that this new system is better and that it's going to help them. Relate this to money for them. Increased accuracy could mean less errors, which can mean higher productivity, which can mean happier customers, which can mean more $$$ (profit). After all, that is all that matters. If you can prove to them that a new system would increase $$$ how could they say no?
The only way to do it the current way would be to:
- Determine whether each file follows a consistent format. Chances of that are slim-to-nil.
- Locate the actual word document for the customer
- Locate all word files that reference the customer. Based on what you have described as the format of the file, there is absolutely no way to tell which other files reference this customer. That would mean you would have to loop through each Word file and...
- Determine whether the file contains a reference to that changed customer, if it does, update and save it. Otherwise, close the file.
- This requires you to open the actual Word document, that means COM interop. Which means you will need to learn how to open/close/search files in Word.
If they insist you do it with the current way, you are extremely close to screwed. If this is the case, I can recommend some paths you should follow for this (you aren't going to like it).
The worst thing about this situation is that it is one of the most simple databases you could ever create.
Re: Help Point me in the Right Direction please.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ForumAccount
My god! Punch those people in the face!
If they insist you do it with the current way, you are extremely close to screwed. If this is the case, I can recommend some paths you should follow for this (you aren't going to like it).
The worst thing about this situation is that it is one of the most simple databases you could ever create.
Punching is a little extreme, I like my Job. :eek::eek:
Yes they insist and I have been trying for over a year.
Re: Help Point me in the Right Direction please.
Keep trying! As FC said, it is a simple database.
Re: Help Point me in the Right Direction please.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mbutler755
Keep trying! As FC said, it is a simple database.
Well, I am going to keep trying but, I am also going to try to accommodate the wishes of my "Bosses".
Simple? maybe if it was as simple as contacts and notes, but there is alot more in these decust.doc files then that. they use different Font formatting to represent different things, some do it one way other do it another, It is a mess.
with that said, I have developed a Demo program that can pretty much do what these .doc files do for them.
Gmack
